The Brief

*What is Sony Recycle Project JEANS?* In 2009, Sony started a brand new form of recycling. We regenerated a giant advertising tarp (10x18m) at the Sony Building in Tokyo into jeans. A pair of the jeans is unique because it's hand-made of Sony Ads with diversified designs. Exclusively selling 120 pairs for 180 USD each, and a portion of proceeds are donated to restoring World Heritage Sites. This is a tangible corporate branding activity by Sony. What is the best way to communicate the concept of this activity and direct the target to buy the jeans?

Creative Execution

We transformed a disposable advertising creative into a valuable product and the display design also transformed an advertising medium into a point of purchase. This offered a direct new and exciting way of shopping, directly engaged the public with the Sony spirit, and built a relationship and created pride of ownership.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We sold the jeans at the place of origin: Sony Building’s wall. Vegetables at a farm taste better. Wine at a winery tastes better. Sushi at a fishing port tastes better. That is “farm fresh”. So we aimed to gain a better understanding of the recycling concept and to direct the target to want the jeans by the display design, selling at where the ad was run. People through binoculars choose a pair of jeans and a staff member roped down the wall to take off a selected jeans.

Results

Within one month, we sold the target number of jeans (over 90). The cost of the advertising medium was free, but we got publicity of over $500,000. Most of the funding was covered by the sales of the jeans.